Daily Republican., 1887-04-06
BUFFALO AND ANTELOPE.

To see the rapidity with which the
larger kind OF game animals are being
extcrminated throughout the United
States is really melancholy. Twenty
five years ago, or even fifteen years
ago, the western plains and noun
tains were in places fairly thronged
with deer, elk, antelope and buffalo.
Indeed, there was then no other part
of the world, save South Africa,
where the number of individuals of
large game animals was 80 large. all
this has now been changed, or else is
being changed at really remarkable
speed. The buffalo are already gone.
a few struggling individuals, and per.
baps here and there herd so small
that it can hardly be called more than
a squad, are all that remain. The
same fate has befalen the elk, and
their number, even among the noun.
famous haunts, which still afford them
a refuge, is greatly decreased. The
shrinking among deer and antelope
has been relatively nearly as serious.
There are but few places left now
where 1t is profitable for man to
take TO hunting as profession; the
brutal skin hunters and meat butchers
of the woods and prairies have done
their work, and these buckskip-clad
and greasy Nimrods are now them
selves sharing the fate of the game
that has disappeared from before their
rifles.
Still, however. there is plenty tf
sport to be had by men who are of II
more or less adventurous turn of mind,
and sufficiently hardy and resolute to
be willing to stand rough work and
scant fare; and, of course, excepting
men Who go out TO spend some months
in travelling solely rte purpose of
sport, no class has S m cl, chance to
get it, as is the case W ii tae ranch.
men. whose herds ow cover the great
plains OF the West, and even range
well up on the foot hills of the Rocky
Mountains. All my own hunting has
been done simply in the intervals of
the numerous duties OF ranch life; and
in order TO understand the way we set
out on trip after game. it is necessary
also TO understand u little about the
nature of our homes and general sur
roundings.
Many of the ranches are mere mud
novels or log shanties, stuck down in
any raw, treeless spot where there
happens to be water or grass; but many
Others are really beautifully situated.
and though very rude in construction,
are still large enough and solid enough
to yield ample comfort to the inmates.
One such now in my mind, which is
placed in bend oil the Heart river,
could not possibly be surpassed as re-
CARDS the romantic loYeliness of its
surroundings.
My own house stands on bottom OF
the Little Missouri, nearly two miles
in length, and perhaps half u mile in
width, from the brink of the current
to the line Of steep and jagged butics
that rise sharply up to bound it on the
side farthest from the river. Part of
this bottom is open, covered only with
rank grass and sprawling sage brush;
but there are patches OF dense wood
land, where the brittle cottonwood
trees grow close together and stretch
their heads high in the air. The
house itself, made of hewn logs, is in
a large open glade many miles in cx-
tent. 1t fronts the river in its length
of sixty feet, and along the front runs
a broad veranGa, where we sit in our
rocking chairs in the summer time,
when The long days work is done.
Within, it is divided into several
rooms; one Of these is where we spend
the winter evenings, ut II time when
the cold has set in with Il bitter inten-
sity hardly known in any other part
of the United States. A huge fire
place contains the great logs OF cedar
and cottonwood; skins of elk and deer
cover the floor, while wolf and fox
furs hang from the walls; antlers and
horns are thrust into the ratters, to
serve rs pegs on which to hang our
C )ats and caps.
In the glade beside the house there
are several other buildings, a stable, a
smithy and two or three sheds and
outhouses, beside high, circular
with a snubbing-post in
the center, with fenced-ln patch of
garden land. The river itself is usually
a shallow, rapid stream that man
can wade across, but that cannot carry
the lightest boat; but when the snow
melts, or after heavy rains, it is
changed int boiling, muddy torrent
that cannot be crossed by man or
beast, and that will only bear huge
RATS. 1t is at all times dangerous to
cross on account of the quicksands. but
after series of ireshets the whole river
can be described as simply four or five
feet OF turbulent water, running down
over moving mass of quicksand three
feet in depth, that fills the entire bed
of the stream In ordinary floods there
will remain certain fords and rapids
tina. can be crossed, but at times any
horse that dared to attempt passage,
no matter where, would be certainly
lost.